Internet Protocol TeleVision (IPTV) is a technology that can be used to distribute Broadcast TV (BTV) content using a combination of IP multicast networks and DSL or fiber optic access links. As described herein, a content stream delivered to a user will typically include both program content portions and non-program content portions, such as commercials. One of the advantages of IPTV is that it can do customized commercial insertion. This means that two viewers watching the same program can receive different commercial content. This gives broadcasters the ability to do targeted advertising.
One of the concerns regarding commercial insertion is that it leaves artifacts in the data stream delivered to the Set Top Box (STB). These artifacts can be detected by an automatic device that is referred to herein as a “commercial remover.”
A commercial remover is a device that processes the delivered content stream and removes the non-program content, leaving only the program content to be viewed by the user. Most typically, a commercial remover looks for artifacts in the program content stream that denote a boundary between program content and commercial content portions. Such artifacts can occur where the commercial content is spliced into and out of the program content stream.
A commercial remover detects the starts and ends of the commercials and separates the commercials from the program content. The commercial remover stores the program content without the commercials on a recording device. The user can then view the program stripped of its commercials at a later time. This is a concern to content providers and network operators as it can potentially devalue the placement of commercial content, thereby depriving the content provider of income to which they are entitled.
Not every scheme for doing commercial insertion leaves artifacts in the data stream delivered to the STB. The schemes that do not leave artifacts involve inserting commercials at the application protocol layer. They decode and re-encode the compressed video streams for both the program and the commercial. However, these schemes prevent the ability for targeted advertising. In addition, these technologies are expensive and do not scale well. They have particular difficulty when a large number of different commercials are inserted into the same place in the same program, for example, for viewer tailored advertising.